By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
A building reportedly owned by a Beaufort County commissioner has been condemned by the City of Washington.
The unoccupied structure, set well back from the corner of Bonner Street and John Small Avenue, is owned by Commissioner Stan Deatherage, city officials said.
The green, single-story building once held Deatherage’s real-estate office and was sited near the intersection of Bridge and Second streets.
Formerly adjacent to the bygone Dr Pepper plant off Bridge Street, Deatherage’s onetime office was moved to its current location four to five years ago, an elected official said.
Tax records show more than one name — Deatherage’s included — on an account for the 3.22-acre property on which the former office now rests.
The land, which has an appraised tax value of $112,700, is the former John Small school property.
A listed value for the building could not be found on the tax records.
Reached for comment late last week, Deatherage revealed he has plans for the building, which he said already had a renovated interior.
“It was a nice office, and the plans I have are going to take the best of what I have and create a fairly nice office, and increase the size of it by two and a half times,” he said.
After being moved, the building was left on an impermanent foundation, according to Allen Pittman, senior building official with the city.
Asked when the building was condemned by the city, Pittman said, “We actually posted it about 30 days ago because of the time period that it had been on the property and that it wasn’t on a permanent foundation.”
On Thursday, a reflective condemnation sign could be seen on the street-facing side of the building.
Public concerns led city inspectors to investigate the building, Pittman said.
“It was not on a permanent foundation, and if it was to remain there it needed to be placed on a permanent foundation,” he clarified.
The city had given Deatherage 60 days to finalize a site plan and send it through a review process to obtain a building permit, said Bobby Roberson, a Washington councilman and retired city planner.
Roberson said he heard residents’ complaints about the building while he was running for office last year.
“The reason is it’s on a main corridor, an east-west corridor,” he said.
The city has often dealt with dilapidated structures through Community Development Block Grants, using a combination of state-federal dollars to bring condemned properties up to code, Roberson said.
“Typically, the experience I’ve had, it’s on a complaint-by-complaint basis,” the councilman related.
He noted that Deatherage’s case isn’t a grant-focused situation, but is a component of private development plans.
Citing a status update from the city’s building-inspections department, Roberson said Deatherage had been working to subdivide the property and could settle title arrangements in the next 60 days.
Deatherage said he’s been dealing with concerns related to the property and his late father’s estate.
“It is a legal matter, and it has been a legal matter since shortly after my father’s death,” he said. “It is my hope that it will be taken care of so that I can continue my desire to build on that property.”
He said he does hope to subdivide the land, which he said is zoned for office and institutional use.
“I have plans to construct a story and a half around (the building) and eventually make it 2,500 square feet with brick siding and a front porch,” Deatherage commented. “Something that will look architecturally significant and, hopefully, will lure people in to do business with me.”
Deatherage said he wants the renovated edifice to serve as a headquarters for his Internet business and revamped real-estate activities.
He said he hasn’t heard any complaints from his constituents about the building.
“The people that are very interested in my property are probably people that are very concerned about my personal business,” he stated. “My constituents only care about me governing the best that I can.”
He added, “People are so concerned about my business, they need to know my business.”